At long last, Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 has been officially released. Thunderbird 2.0 was released about two and a half years ago (April 2007) and while Mozilla Firefox has sped along with a number of releases in the 3.x series, Thunderbird has not. However, the 3.0 release of this Mozilla mail client should be rather great and does boast many improvements.

SeaMonkey, the Mozilla Internet suite of software that has everything from an HTML editor to IRC client to web browser, has reached version 2.0. New in Mozilla SeaMonkey 2.0 is RSS/Atom feed support in the Mozilla Mail portion, a modern look-and-feel, tabbed mail support, automated updates, faster JavaScript processing, and HTML5 support.

JPEG 2000, the image file format that has been around for nearly a decade and offers better compression performance and greater flexibility in the code-stream that can allow for higher quality photographs compared to a traditional JPEG, may get a boost on the Linux desktop. JPEG 2000 hasn't seen much adoption in large part because of the lack of web browsers that natively support this JP2 ISO standard, including Firefox. While there was an attempt before to add JPEG 2000 support to Firefox through a Google Summer of Code project, Mozilla developers have largely been opposed to adding this support since this file format is not used enough nor "important enough" to justify the work and face any possible legal threat in implementing this open-source support.

Finally, the Mozilla Foundation has announced the official release of Mozilla Firefox 3.5. This sizable open-source browser update (formerly known as Firefox 3.1) brings HTML 5 support, a new JavaScript engine (a.k.a. TraceMonkey), a private browsing mode, and a number of other new features.

It's going on two years since Thunderbird 2.0 was released and six months since the introduction of Firefox 3.0, but Mozilla's Thunderbird mail client is finally getting closer to reaching version 3.0. Mozilla Messaging, the subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that now guides work on this open-source mail client, has released Thunderbird 3.0 Beta 1.

This news is coming a bit late thanks to delays with air travel here in the United States, but Mozilla Firefox 3.0 is now available! Firefox 3.0 has a horde of improvements over Firefox 2.0. Some of the new features include one-click bookmarking, improved performance, smart location bar, instant web-site ID, full zoom, and a multitude of other significant open-source advancements. For all of the details and download links, head on over to the Firefox web-site.

The official announcement hasn't yet come down the wire, but Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.9 is now available. Like many of the minor Firefox 2.0.0.x releases, Firefox 2.0.0.9 contains stability and security updates. One mirror that has been synced already for this new web browser release can be found here.

The seventh alpha release of Mozilla Firefox 3.0 is now available for developers and those feeling adventurous. Firefox 3.0 Alpha 7 "Gran Paradiso" adds full page zoom for images, layout, and text, reworking of XUL menus and pop-ups, new clipboard events, cross-site XMLHttpRequest specification implemented, color profile support, and a number of other features. This release also contains a number of Gecko 1.9 bug fixes. The complete list of changes along with other information can be found in the Mozilla release notes.

Earlier this week marked the release of Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6 to fix two newly-presented security vulnerabilities and the Thunderbird mail-client has now been updated to fix the same set of issues. Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 has no other changes aside from the two security fixes. The release notes are available from Mozilla.

Being released ten days after Firefox 2.0.0.5 is now Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6. This latest browser update, once again, is to address security vulnerabilities. The two issues fixed in Firefox 2.0.0.6 is unescaped URIs being passed to external programs and privilege escalation through chrome-loaded about:blank windows. Additional information is available from the Firefox release notes.

Earlier this week Firefox 2.0.0.5 was released with security and stability updates, and today marks the release of Thunderbird 2.0.0.5. Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.5 marks the fixing of two security vulnerabilities -- remote code execution by launching Firefox from Internet Explorer and crashes with evidence of memory corruption. The Thunderbird release notes can be read on Mozilla.org.

In Mozilla's battle against stability and security bugs, Firefox 2.0.0.5 has been released. Eight known security vulnerabilities have been corrected in this release including crashes with evidence of memory corruption, frame spoofing, file type confusion, and remote code execution by launching Firefox from Internet Explorer. The release notes for Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.5 are available from Mozilla.org.

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Alpha 6 (or also known as Gran Paradiso 1.9 Alpha 6) has been released with a number of updates since the fifth alpha release. Some of the changes include the SQLite engine being upgraded to version 3.3.17, improved cookie performance, support for site-specific preferences, a new Quit dialog box, added a permanent "restart Firefox" button to the add-ons manager, fixes to the download manager, Places fixes, and Gecko 1.9 bug fixes. Ernst Persson had also passed along that while it's not officially mentioned in the Firefox 3.0 Alpha 6 release notes from Mozilla, this version does in fact support GTK theme HTML form controls on Linux.

The fifth alpha release of Mozilla Firefox 3.0 "Gran Paradiso" is now available. Firefox 3.0 is based upon the Mozilla Gecko 1.9 engine and some of the changes with Firefox 3.0 Alpha 5 include Bookmarks portion of Places have been enabled, the implementation of the Breakpad reporting system, new JavaScript-based Password Manager, Mac OS X improvements, and a variety of bug fixes. More information is available in the Gran Paradiso Alpha 5 release notes.

The fourth Firefox update in the 2.0 branch is now available. Firefox 2.0.0.4 fixes several issues, and adds support for several new languages. More information on the security fixes and download links are available from Mozilla.

After what had seemed like an eternity, Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 is finally available (Firefox 2.0 was released last October). Thunderbird 2.0 offers new ways to manage and organize email with message tags, advanced folder views, message history navigation, find as you type, and improves new mail alert notifications. More information on the new features for this mail and RSS client is available here while MozillaZine has the announcement from Team Thunderbird's Scott MacGregor.

For the Mozilla Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 branches there are new updates available -- 1.5.0.11 and 2.0.0.3 respectively. These new updates introduce no new features but continues with security and stability improvements. For more information see Mozilla.org.

On the Mozilla development planning list, the possibility of delivering a Mozilla-based desktop environment is being discussed, which would be similar to GNOME or KDE and run off either the Linux or FreeBSD kernel. The complete discussion is available to read and provide input here.

While Mozilla Firefox 2.0 "Bon Echo" has only been in existence now for a few months, the second Alpha release for Mozilla Firefox 3.0 "Gran Paradiso" is now available. Among the changes in Firefox 3 Alpha 2 is some core layout code being rewritten, ACID2 test compliance, support for Web Apps 1.0 API, XML load document changes, improvements in the Cairo graphics layer, and much more. Mozilla Firefox 3.0 "Gran Paradiso" is based upon the Mozilla Gecko 1.9 branch and is due out later this year. More information on Gran Paradiso Alpha 2 is available here.

Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 Beta 2 has been released. Among the new features is message tagging, new interface, session history navigation, find as you type, updates to extension system, and much more. The release notes can be found here.

The desired features for Firefox 3 have been organized and released after a recent Mozilla meeting. Among the mandatory Firefox 3 features include improved interaction with ad-ons, support for remote bookmarks, robust plug-in support, improved printing support, improved password management, and Airbag crash system implementation. Among the highly desirable features (but not guaranteed for Firefox 3.0) are saving web pages as PDF files, pause/resume downloads across sessions, and Microformats support. More on the Firefox 3 features and other information can be found in the Wiki. Mozilla Firefox 3.0 final should be out third quarter this year.

While Mozilla Firefox 2.0 has been out now for almost two months, the Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 branch is still catching up. Coming out of the Mozilla camp today is Thunderbird 2.0 Beta 1. Some of the new features in this development milestone is message tagging, improved default theme, session history navigation, folder views, improved extensions support, improved offline management, improved new mail notification alerts, folder summary pop-ups, cached search folders, improved filing tools, and an update to the Thunderbird extension system. Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 Beta 1 can be grabbed for all major platforms. Thunderbird 2 final is anticipated for release in the first quarter of next year.

Last week we reported on the Gecko 1.9 Alpha 1 release, and with that the first Alpha release for Mozilla Firefox 3.0 is now out the door! Gran Paradiso is both the codename for Firefox 3.0 as well as Gecko 1.9 (as well as being the highest mountain group in the Graian Alps). Some the changes between Firefox 2.0 and Firefox 3.0 Alpha 1 is the Cairo graphics library being used by default, updated threading model, changes to how DOM events are dispatched, changes to how elements are loaded, changes to how web pages are painted, and new SVG elements and filters. The release notes for Mozilla Grand Paradiso Alpha 1 can be found here.

Gran Paradiso Alpha 1 is out! Gran Paradiso is the project codename for Firefox 3.0. Gran Paradiso Alpha 1 is the first early development milestone based on the Gecko 1.9 branch. While no significant user-end changes have been made in this release, Cairo is now the default graphics library and there are new SVG elements. The Gran Paradiso Alpha 1 announcement can be read here.

The tree for Gecko 1.9 Alpha has been closed. This will be the first (of many) Alpha releases in the Mozilla Gecko 1.9 branch. After the builds have been completed, they will be announced, but is a release for the core Gecko rendering engine only. No front-end changes will be made in Mozilla Gecko 1.9 Alpha 1 from the recent release of Firefox 2.0.0. See more information at Mozilla Developer News.

Along with the new 1.5.0.8 release of Firefox and Thunderbird, Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.0.6 has been released along with a 1.1 Beta of SeaMonkey. Some of the new improvements being worked on for SeaMonkey 1.1 are tab previews, spell checking, e-mail tagging system, better new mail notifications, and an updated ChatZilla IRC client. For those that have never used SeaMonkey, it's an all-in-one Internet suite. The release announcement can be found at MozillaZine.

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